1.1 1.2 'Benefits Street' and the Myth of Workless฀ Communities by Robert MacDonald, Tracy Shildrick and Andy Furlong Teesside University; University of Glasgow; University of Leeds Sociological Research Online, 19 (3), 1 <http://www.socresonline.org.uk/19/3/1.html> DOI: 10.5153/sro.3438 Received: 26 Apr 2014 | Accepted: 25 Jun 2014 | Published: 23 Aug 2014 Abstract This paper critically engages with a pervasive myth about welfare in the UK which is commonly spread by politicians, think tanks and the media. This is the myth that there are areas of the country which are so affected by entrenched cultures of 'welfare dependency' that the majority of residents are unemployed. In undertaking research that sought to investigate a different idea - that there are families where no-one has worked over several generations - we simultaneously gathered evidence about the likelihood that there are localities where virtually no-one is in employment. The rationale for Channel 4's Benefits Street was exactly this; that whole streets and฀ neighbourhoods are of out of work and living on welfare benefits. We draw on research evidence gathered in Middlesbrough and฀ Glasgow to investigate this idea. Thus, the aim of our paper is simple and empirical: is the central idea of 'Benefits Street' true? Are฀ there streets and neighbourhoods in the UK where virtually no-one works? Keywords: Worklessness, Welfare, Benefits, Neighbourhoods฀ Introduction: Two popular myths ...there are two pervasive myths about welfare in the UK which are routinely retailed by politicians and the media. The first is the myth of the family where 'nobody has worked for generations'. The second is the myth of the area where฀ 'nobody works around here' (Declan Gaffney 2014). In undertaking research that sought to investigate the first of these ideas (i.e. that there are families฀ where no-one has worked over several generations), we simultaneously gathered evidence about the likelihood of the second (i.e. that there are localities were no-one is in employment). A full discussion of what we found in relation to the first issue can be found elsewhere (฀ Shildrick et al 2012 ; MacDonald et al 2013). It is the second one that concerns us here. It is this idea, that whole streets and neighbourhoods are of out of work and living on welfare benefits, that was the rationale for Channel 4's ฀ Benefits Street฀ and which became the target of tabloid newspaper disapproval (see Gaffney 2014): 'Benefits Street exposed; the street where 9 out of 10 households are on welfare' (The Express);฀ '...where 90 per cent of residents are on handouts' (The Sun); '...90 per cent of residents are on benefits' (The Daily Mail).฀ As we will show, this is a powerful and important idea that is shared by leading politicians and think tanks. It is a belief that carries with it implicit and sometimes explicitly stated theories of contemporary worklessness in the UK which in turn can be used to justify the ramping up of more punitive policy measures (e.g. increased benefit conditionality or cuts in benefit levels). Yet, as Gaffney suggests, this powerful idea might฀ be mythical in the sense that it is 'a mode of thinking that has no relation to facts whatsoever'. Thus, the aim of our paper is simple and empirical: is the central idea of 'Benefits Street' true? ฀ Are there streets and neighbourhoods in the UK where virtually no-one works? http://www.socresonline.org.uk/19/3/1.html 1 23/08/2014